General / Off-Topic Have you ever learnt a word you never heard before, and suddenly you hear it all around you?

AluminumAlloy

AluminumAlloy
They call this the Baader Meinhof Phenomenon.

A long time ago I forgot the word "turmoil", and then recognized it after hitching a ride on a Power-play debate thread with a poster talking about power turmoil. I thought "Eh, what does the word turmoil mean?" and googled it up. I later turned on the television to see my local news and I hear a bunch of talk about an economical turmoil, and I began hearing the word everywhere like I have never heard it so frequent before.

I'm sure this has happened to many other people before, and so why does this simply happen? This stuff is mysterious.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
I've not heard of it before to be honest, so had to look it up.

I'm sure we have all expreienced it. I can't find out why it is called Baader-Meinhof. An unfortunate co-incidence. (Or perhaps not).

Found this, among other suggesitons: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion Personally I prefer the rather more common place explaination. http://www.damninteresting.com/the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon/ Especially since it is one of those psychological illusions which belong to a group, the name of which I can't remember. :D
 

SMcA

SMcA
Gosh! I've not heard of Baader-Meinhof for decades.

Possibly because, in the UK, no one had ever heard of them in the 70's then they were in the news all the time. The phenomenon was called that.
 

Krepose Gavayne

Krepose Gavayne
I've had this happen with various things. A new car and suddenly I see the same type everywhere (where previously they blended into the background). Wondering what a shop window advert is for and then I keep seeing it on lorry sides and in other places (whilst generally ignoring most other brand names and ads). A phrase which people use gets to the point of irritation (overuse) and then I hear it standing out every time someone says it and start counting its use rather than concentrating on what the person is trying to say. The list goes on.

For words I notice how some become the new buzz word and they pop up all too often both in the news and society. In a couple of my old jobs there were two examples which used to get on my wick. In one the word "proactive" and its variations were sprinkled around like salt grains on a meal. In almost every case the word "active" would have been more appropriate. In the other job colleagues kept saying "going forward". You can strip that from every sentence and it would make no difference as the sentence tense already conveys what matters, and when did "in future" cease to be worthy of utterance? Mind you, there is such a lot of spoken in business/corporate communications, it almost takes the prize from estate agents and their 'colourful' descriptions of properties.

Anyone remember years ago when someone in the Houses of Parliament used "egregious"? There was a flutter of interest over that as I recall it taking up more air time than the actual speech/statement, as the word's meaning was unknown. It planted itself in my memory and whenever I hear it now it stands out amongst the rest of what's being said.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
I was concentrating on the psychological explanation but it's occurred that there is a philosophical notion that says we create our own reality.
 
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